


He'd Protect You, No Doubt

by Hoodoo



Category: Beetlejuice (1988), Beetlejuice - All Media Types
Genre: Demonic Rage, Drabble, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Helplessness and Worry, Hurt/Comfort, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-01
Packaged: 2021-02-26 19:28:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21623962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hoodoo/pseuds/Hoodoo
Summary: Reader comes home with an injury. They shake it off, but BJ has a harder time doing that. Humans are sofragile,after all.
Relationships: Beetlejuice (Beetlejuice)/Reader, Beetlejuice (Beetlejuice)/You
Comments: 38
Kudos: 273





	He'd Protect You, No Doubt

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FannibalToast](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FannibalToast/gifts).



Sometimes, when you walked in the door after being gone, your dead roommate ambushed you. He hugged you, or he jumped on your back, or he wrapped you up in multiple arms like an especially affectionate--or slightly treacherous, slightly hungry--octopus. 

Many times, you liked it. It was nice to be so warmly welcomed home. 

Today, however, you hurt.

The second Beetlejuice grabbed you, squeezing your arms to your sides and planting a nuzzly, semi-bitey kiss on the side of your neck, you squawked in pain and flailed to bat him off you. The quick, twisting that made the movement also made you cry out involuntarily again. You couldn’t control the tears that sprang to your eyes either.

At the unexpected slapping, crying, and tears, Beetlejuice immediately tried to pull you to him. It was his standard response; it had started because getting into someone’s personal space was a damn fine way to make them uncomfortable while trying to scare them, but as your relationship changed he liked to hold you, keep you close, protect you.

“Beej stop it!” you wailed. Your voice cracked. 

He threw his hands up and away from you dramatically. “What? What is it, babes? What did I do?” he demanded, exasperated. There was an undercurrent of concern too.

You shook your head, wiping your eyes.. “Nothing. Nothing! I just got hurt today, and you grabbing me made it flare up again.”

The second the word “hurt” left your mouth, Beetlejuice’s demeanor shifted. Instead of being offended now, instead of being worried now, a snarl curled his mouth. He lowered his chin, making his eye sockets look deeper and darker than they actually were, and stared intently at you from under his brows. The change was ugly and he looked deeply dangerous. 

_“Who did it? Who hurt you?”_ he spit in a voice so low it seemed to have been dredged up from the bottom of his lungs. 

You got your tears under control. You’d overreacted to his enthusiastic welcome, and now you regretted it. 

“Beej, Beej! It’s nothing! Really!”

The lights flickered, and the entire room went dim. 

_“Tell me who HURT YOU!”_

Now his voice came from the very walls, which shook with the force of his rage. A wind whipped through the foyer, strong enough to make you rock to keep your balance, blowing papers and the mail on the table around. What little you could see of his face in the murk had twisted into a nebulous mass; only bright flashes from his eyes and a mouthful of fangs were constant. Beetlejuice looked truly demonic.

_“I will hunt them and I will destroy them--”_

You were tired and sore, however, and wanted to rest, not deal with his good but misplaced intentions.

“Beej! Beej!” you tried to interrupt in the maelstrom. You had to shout to counter it. _“Beetlejuice!”_

That caught his attention. The wind died and the lights returned to normal, and his appearance coagulated back to the one you were more familiar with, although his eyes still glowed a little more brightly from the inside.

“What baby?” he asked in a smaller voice. 

You sighed. “Beej, you need to calm down--”

“I’m calm! Look, I’m calm!” He threw a hand out as the papers settled to the floor.

“--and I appreciate you wanting to protect me--”

“I _will_ protect you! No one lays a finger on you! I will make them pay for daring to touch you!”

“--but what are you going to do? Terrorize the patch of ice I slipped on?”

Silently you counted three, two, one! in your head as the light came on in his.

The fire in his eyes died as they widened. Beetlejuice raised his chin again, and the fury that had been etched there softened. 

“You slipped? On some ice?” he repeated. 

“Yeah. I went straight down. Landed on my back! I’m so sore!”

Immediately Beetlejuice left the demon-on-a-righteous-rampage persona behind. He became soft and worried and fretful, wanting to touch you but pulling his hands away quickly in case that would cause you more distress. He asked what he could do, he asked what you wanted, he voiced his concern that humans were so _frail_ and he hated seeing you hurt and in pain and he could draw you a bath or get you some drugs--not the crappy ones here, on this mortal plane, but some good ones, ones from the Netherworld that the dead took to ease their suffering--

You grabbed his hand, you took his cheek, and you thanked him. You kissed him lightly on the lips, leaving him surprised and more worried that stretching up to him was going to make you ache more. 

You did it again, just because, and then you let him pamper you.

_fin!_


End file.
